Appointed Messrs Frew and Steedman to audit the presbytery accounts. Next meeting to be held on the 1st of February.

PROBATIONERS LICENSED.

Mr James Frame, by the presbytery of Lanark, December 7.

Mr Thomas Baxter, by the presbytery of Falkirk, December 8th.

Mr W. Taylor, by the presbytery of Kilmarnock, December 14th.

Messrs W. Fleming, W. M. M'Donald, George M'Queen, J. C. Meiklejohn, Walter Morrison, J. G. Potter, W. Thomson, and W. Walker, by the presbytery of Glasgow, 15th December.

CALLS MODERATED.

South Ronaldshay, Orkney.-Mr R. S. Drummond, probationer, called 22d Nov.— Mr Buchan, of Holm, presiding.

Longridge, Whitburn. Mr John More, probationer, called 23d November-Mr Dunlop, of Biggar, presiding.

Burghead.-The Rev. Alex. Walker, formerly of Newcastle-on-Tyne, called 24th November-Mr Simpson, of Forres, presiding.

Ramsey, Isle of Man.—Mr Stephen Wallace, probationer, called 24th NovemberMr Inglis, of Kendal, presiding.

In the notice of the Peterhead call, last month, for "W. Drummond," read "R. S. Drummond."

“THE Canadian Presbyterian Magazine" for September last, contains a very ample and minute "statistical report of the United Presbyterian Church of Canada, for the year ending 31st December 1851." The report presents the state of every church separately, in regard to twenty different points embraced in the queries sent down from Synod, with the exception that some 10 out of 63 organised congregations have omitted to send in returns. It is much to be desired that equally full information were obtained respecting the church here at home. The schedule is too extensive for transference to our columns, but we copy as follows the statement of results:

"From the foregoing table it appears that there are in the United Presbyterian Church, Canada, upwards of 63 organised congregations; for several of the places classed as vacancies are organised congregations, only destitute of a pastor.

"It also appears that there are 40 stations returned. Some of these shall soon become congregations prepared to support a minister, while others, through the aid of a station commenced in their neighbourhood, may aspire to the same.

"According to the returns made, the average attendance throughout the church, for the past year, has been 10,558 ; but fuller returns would have shown a larger number.

"719 members have been added, and 276 have removed from congregations with which they were connected. Several of these may have gone to other denominations, but, perhaps, the majority still continue in the United Presbyterian Church in the different parts of the province to which they have removed.

"There are upwards of 5389 individuals in actual membership. Baptism has been dispensed in 531 instances, and 2223 are receiving instruction in religious classes. 834 attend prayer-meetings. 33 congregations are returned as having libraries; the volumes in these amounting to 9401. There are 55' churches, and the title deeds are with few exceptions possessed.

"The debt upon 22 churches amounts to L.2347: 18:04. Taking the aggregate of the sums, the TOTAL INCOME reaches L.5375, 12s. 10d, somewhat less upon an average than L.1 to each member. L.2848, 16s. 3d., have been paid as stipends, and L.1213, 1s. 4d., have been expended on church property. For the theological fund, L.51, 6s. 7d. have been raised; for the Synod and presbytery fund, L.34:18:6; for Synod's mission, L.198:19:9; for general missions, L.257:16:1; for the poor, L.28, 15s. in two congregations; while incidental expenses have reached the sum of L.477: 17: 113.

"In the presbytery of London, L.592, 17s. 5d. have been raised; being on an average, 11s. 8d. to each member: in the presbytery of Flamboro', L.1504: 4:53, being to each meinber, on an average, L.I:4:3: members of congregations in the Wellington presbytery have raised each L.1:0:1: those in the Toronto presbytery, L.1:4:7: and those in Durham, 15s. 94d. The returns for the presbyteries of Lanark and Canada East, are so incomplete, that it would not be fair towards them to make a particular calculation.

"The above statistics are not, by any means, so full as they might be. On looking to the columns many blanks appear which should have been filled up, and then we would have had a more favourable opportunity of ascertaining the actual state of the church, and fuller data for judging of her progress in the future. We hope that congregations will make more complete returns to their presbyteries in future years, and that these shall be forwarded to the mission committee at the earliest convenience."

WHAT ROME CALLS SUPERNATURAL.

THE Court of Rome takes upon it to determine of any out of the way performance, whether it is miraculous or no. When a claim is put forward in behalf of a dead priest, to have his name enrolled in the calendar of saints, inquisition is made into the question, whether miracles were wrought either by himself while alive, or by others at his grave after he had died; and proof having been led and examined, according to the result, the verdict, "saint or no saint," is given. How far the ecclesiastical authorities at Rome's head-quarters are competent to determine a question of this kind, may be judged from an incident which, according to a letter sent from Rome, recently happened within the civic jurisdiction of the Pope. The following is an extract from the letter referred to :

"A short time since a disciple of M. Robin was in Rome, and among his conjuring tricks, he bandaged his wife's eyes, placed her in another part of the theatre, and asked her what he had in his hand, where it was made, and other questions. This trick, so common in England, was thought so wonderful in Rome, that when the Pope's Vicar heard of it he suspended the performance, although

the announcement had been stuck all over the city. The conjuror was called before His Eminence, charged with being in league with the black gentleman below, and threatened with all sorts of things. The poor man, to get himself out of the scrape, was obliged to divulge the secret of the trick: after which the performance was allowed to be continued. I mention this, that you may judge of the intellectual state of the Eternal City."

The fact thus stated, has a more extensive bearing than the writer indicates. Not only does it show the intellectual state of the Eternal City; it shows also how insufficient is the ground on which the saints in the Romish calendar were admitted to have wrought the supernatural works, on the credit of which they have been elevated to their high rank as objects of worship. Had not this poor conjuror explained the slight-of-hand tricks by which he was alleged to prove himself an ally of the prince of darkness, he would, doubtless, have been set down in this character in the books of the Pope's Vicar. Had the tricksters by whom the orthodox miracles of Popery were wrought, been as strictly brought to task, and as candid in explaining their surprising performances, as was this professor of legerdemain, they would, like him, have unfolded a tale more creditable to their adroitness than to their piety.

THE NEW FRENCH EMPIRE.

On the 2d December France proclaimed itself an empire. The man who had sworn to maintain the Republic and its institutions, and had proved the sincerity of his solemn oaths by violating every one of them, whenever it was found to stand in the way of his personal aggrandisement, could not be expected to content himself long with the name of President, if he thought the time was come when he might safely assume a more imposing title. Could we forget the system of mendacity, tyranny, and trickery by which he has ascended to his new dignity, we might believe that the Imperial throne rests on a foundation of eight million votes of free citizens: but when we remember that the preparing, receiving, and counting of the voting tickets were all under his own control, that opposing interests were allowed no check upon his creatures in this business while it was in progress, and that, in consequence of the bondage of the press, the most flagrant falsification could not be exposed or scrutinised after the affair was finished, we cannot regard the eight millions as anything else than an arithmetical figure chosen by the President's fancy to express the amount of popularity which it was desirable to have for this crowning act of his ambition. Plainly in this last step, as in those that went before, Louis Napoleon has leant upon the priests; and their services, we may be sure, were not given for nothing. Indeed, all throughout the history of this usurpation, we have the happy union of church and state; each helping the other for mutual benefit. Napoleon III., as the new Emperor has chosen to be called, laboured hard to secure from the priest party—a favour which he deemed of immense importance to the consolidating of his power-viz., the presence of their Pope at Paris to consecrate the empire. The Sovereign Pontiff, it appears, was not unwilling to oblige him for a consideration, worthy of so distinguished an act of grace. If the Emperor would hand over France, tied neck and heel, to the spiritual domin. ion of the Pope and the Jesuits, then the Pope would come and bless Napoleon as the temporal governor of the French empire. France, it must be remembered, has never been so thoroughly popish as Portugal and Naples, and certain other Roman Catholic States in Europe. In 1682, on occasion of the disputes between Louis XIV. and the court of Rome, an assembly of the French clergy was held, at which the

distinguished priest-orator Bossuet proposed, and succeeded in getting passed, four propositions, which have ever since been maintained as the magna charta of the French Catholic Church. These propositions are as follows:-"1. God has not given to St Peter and his successors any power, direct or indirect, in temporal matters. 2. The Gallican Church approves the Council of Constance, which declares the General Councils superior to the Pope in spiritual matters. 3. The rules, the usages, and the practices received in this kingdom and in the Gallican Church remain unaltered and unalterable; and, 4. The decisions of the Pope in matters of faith are not valid until such time as the church shall have accepted them." For a long time, indeed up till within the last two or three years, the priests holding by these principles formed a majority of the French clergy; but now, probably the other, or ultra-montane party, are in the ascendant. Still the four propositions are there inscribed on the banner of the Gallican Church, to the detriment and scorn of Catholic unity, and the grievous offence of the court of Rome. Let Napoleon sacrifice these, and reduce France ecclesiastically to the same abject vassalage to the Pope and the Jesuits which is owned by Portugal and Naples, then the Pope will come and pour the oil of consecration on the head of the usurper. That the "accident of an accident" now on the French throne would willingly pay this price if he could for the envied compliment, is hardly to be doubted; but it will take some time before he can venture to despise so far the long-cherished sentiments of the clergy, as well as of the more intelligent among the people. We have no doubt he will complete the bargain, and hand over the price as soon as it is in his power-unless, indeed, he is astute enough to see, that by surrendering France so entirely to Jesnit rule, he is cutting away the ground from beneath his own feet, and leaving himself at the mercy of the court of Rome, to continue him in his place, or discard him in favour of the legitimate sovereign, as it may suit the plans of Jesuitry to determine.

BRITISH SENTIMENT ON AMERICAN SLAVERY.

NEVER, probably, did the perusal of a single book rouse to so extensive public action, as has been stirred in this country by "Uncle Tom's Cabin." An address from the people of Scotland, expostulating with their brethren in America, for continuing to underlie the charge of slaveholding, has been circulated, and largely subscribed, during the last month. A still more remarkable movement

in the same direction, and one unexampled, probably, in the history of public philanthropical exertion, has taken place among the female aristocracy of Britain. On the 26th November last, a meeting was held at Stafford House, London, presided over by the Duchess of Sutherland, and called for the purpose of addressing a memorial by the women of England to their sisters, the women of America, on the subject of slavery. Among those present were the Duchesses of Sutherland, Bedford, and Argyle; the Countess of Shaftesbury, Lady Constance Grosvenor, Viscountess Palmerston, Lady Dover, Lady Cowley, Lady Ruthven, Lady Belhaven, Hon. Mrs Montague Villiers, Hon. Mrs Kinnaird, the Lady Mayoress, Mrs Mary Howitt, Mrs Macaulay, etc. Among the ladies who signified their concurrence, were the Duchess Dowager of Beaufort, the Marchioness of Stafford, Countess of Derby, Countess of Carlisle, Lady John Russell, Countess of Litchfield, Countess of Cavan, Viscountess Ebrington, Viscountess Melbourne, Lady_Hatherton, Lady Blantyre, Lady Dufferin, Lady Clark, Lady Paxton, Lady Buxton, Lady Inglis, Mrs Malcom, Mrs Alfred Tennyson, Mrs Lyon Playfair, Mrs Charles Dickens, Mrs Murray, Mrs Charles Knight, Mrs Rowland Hill, etc. The ladies being assembled, the Duchess of Sutherland read a paper, explaining the object of the meeting, and submitted the draft of an address, which was adopted, and a committee appointed to make arrangements for procuring signatures. The address is in the following terms:

"The Affectionate and Christian Address of many Thousands of the Women of England, to their Sisters, the Women of the United States of America.

"A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common cause, urge us, at the present moment, to address you on the subject of that system of negro slavery, which still prevails so extensively, and, even frightful results, in many of the vast regions under kindly-disposed masters, with such

of the western world.

"We will not dwell on the ordinary topics -on the progress of civilisation, on the advance of freedom everywhere, on the rights and requirements of the nineteenth century, -but we appeal to you very seriously to reflect, and to ask counsel of God how far such a state of things is in accordance with His. Holy Word, the inalienable rights of immortal souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian religion.

"We do not shut our eyes to the difficulties,-nay, the dangers,-that might beset the immediate abolition of that long-established system; we see and admit the necessity of preparation for so great an event; but, in speaking of indispensable preliminaries, we

cannot be silent on those laws of your country which, in direct contravention of God's own law, 'instituted in the time of man's innocency,' deny, in effect, to the slave, the sanctity of marriage, with all its joys, rights, and obligations, which separates, at the will of the master, the wife from the husband, and the children from the parents. Nor can we be silent on that awful system which, either by statute or by custom, interdicts to any race of man, or any portion of the human family, education in the truths of the Gospel and the ordinances of Christianity.

"A remedy applied to these two evils alone would commence the amelioration of their sad condition. We appeal, then, to you as sisters, as wives, and as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens, and your prayers to God, for the removal of this affliction from the Christian world. We do not say these things in a spirit of self-complacency, as though our nation were free from the guilt it perceives in others. We acknowledge with grief and shame our share in this great sin. We acknowledge that our fore fathers introduced, nay, compelled, the adoption of slavery in those mighty colonies. We humbly confess it before Almighty God; and it is because we so deeply feel, and so unfeignedly avow, our own complicity, that we now venture to implore your aid to wipe away our common crime and our common dishonour."

The Earl of Shaftesbury, in whose benevolent suggestion this wise and seasonable movement has originated, does not overestimate its importance, when he says in reference to it: In the days in which we live, more is to be effected by public opinion, and by appeals to the great sympathies of mankind, than by force or by statute laws." We earnestly hope that this memorial, or the corresponding one emanating from a committee in Edinburgh, will be subscribed by millions; and that it will be received and pondered by the Christian people of America, in the same Christian spirit in which it is addressed to them.

STATE OF THE TEMPERANCE REFORMATION IN IRELAND.

How is it we hear so little now of Father Matthew's temperance movement in Ireland? Is it that the priests, having other business in hand, keeping down the threatened eruption of intelligence in the Queen's College, have no leisure to look after the suppression of drunkenness throughout the country? It was a noble work, the good philanthropic father started, and much joy its success gave to every true friend of Ireland: but it began at the wrong end. Proceeding from without, inward, it encountered the growth of corrupt principles, which, though they yielded for a little, were still there pressing against the external

restraint, and sure to overcome unless that restraint were renewed and increased. It is only a change of mind and heart, effected by education and the Gospel, that can secure anything like a permanent reformation of morals. A tourist in Ireland, writing to the "Daily News," gives the following account of his observations on this subject:

"It is grievous to see one new feature of Irish life disappearing, before the echo of the world's admiration has died away. At Cork there stands a chapel, conspicuous in its situation, and meant to be so for its beauty-Father Matthew's chapel-built as a monument of temperance reform. Its pillars are truncated, its arches stop short in their spring, its windows are boarded up: it stands a sad type of the temperance reform itself a failed enterprise. The relapse of the people into intemperance is indubitable, and very rapid. Everywhere we were told that the temperance begun in superstition and political enthusiasm, was maintained only by the destitution of the famine time; and everywhere we see but too plainly that the restraint was artificial and temporary. "Now they are better off" we are told; "they are taking to drink again;" and so it seems, by what we see in the towns and by the road side. We never believed that such a process as that of self-government could come complete out of such an act as a vow, or such an impulse as social sympathy. And it seems that the further safeguard of experience of the healthfulness and comfort of sobrietyan experience so lauded before the famineis not enough. Once more, and as usual, we must look for hope and help to that power which will never disappoint us-to education." If in this idea of education the writer include the training of the affections to the love and practice of religious truth, we share in the confidence he expresses in it as the only regeneration of Ireland. The failure of the temperance scheme, once so hopeful, and for a time so productive of good, should furnish a new stimulus to the evangelistic efforts which are now, to an extent and with a degree of vigour not previously known, brought to bear on that unhappy country.

the "Early Closing Association" to new efforts for ameliorating the condition of young men employed in shops and warehouses. We heartily wish them success in their endeavours. The long hours to which thousands of them are subjected are a waste of time and strength quite unnecessary, provided their employers generally would join in adopting a better system. In the brief hour or two spent daily in the business of the London Exchange or the Leeds Cloth Hall, transactions to the extent of millions of money-quite enough to occupy fifteen hours if parties were so disposed are satisfactorily completed before the closing hour is struck, more satisfactorily than if there were opportunity of lingering over them. We quote the following from a circular of the " Early Closing Association.' After referring to the draining of the home labour market by emigration, it is observed:

"The practical question suggested by these considerations for solution, ere it be too late, is, how is this" fever," as it is designated, to be assuaged? It is clear that nothing which could be done would wholly subdue it, were such even desirable. But the extent to which it will for the future rage will much depend upon circumstances. As long as fourteen and fifteen hours of drudgery are imposed on the underpaid grocer's assistant, and the still worse remunerated assistant chemist; as long as the assistant draper is (which is still the case in innumerable instances) denied the opportunity for improvement and needful recreation enjoyed by the mechanic and the artisan; as long, in fact, as young men of any branch of trade are continued the serfs of an oppressive, grinding system-of a system which exacts from them far more labour daily than is imposed on the felons at the hulks, or than the very beasts of burden are required to undergo; as long as this cruel system is permitted to remain thus rampant, so long, rest assured, young men will be found wresting themselves from its clutches, and in shoals leaving their native shores. On the other hand, were the period of employment properly reduced (say to twelve hours per diem, including the time occupied by meals), one of the great, indeed the great grievance now endured by shop assistants, would be removed, and, as a natural consequence, content amongst them would, to a large extent, be diffused."

THE NEW PARLIAMENT AND THE
PROTECTIONIST MINISTRY.

THE Protectionist Ministry, which had promised to bow to the decision of the country, in regard to the principles on which they had assumed office, have been speedily bowed out of place by a House of Commons elected under their own auspices. To pave the way for relieving alleged unequal bur

dens on land, they sought to gain the assent of the Commons to a measure extending the house-tax to houses of L.10 annual rent. The attempt was resisted by a majority of nineteen votes in an unprecedentedly full house. [Ayes 286-Noes 305.] The ministry has accordingly resigned, and a Conservative Free Trader-Lord Aberdeen-has been entrusted with the formation of a new Cabinet. Although the antecedents of the noble Earl are in some respects not the most encouraging to men of liberal opinions, yet as he is associated with the liberal Lord Lansdowne in the Queen's confidence at the present crisis, as his conducting the government on Tory principles is now more and more plainly a thing impracticable, and as he has learned under his former chiefs, Wellington and Peel, to yield in time to the clearly expressed opinion of the country, we are not without hope that a strong liberal government will be the result of the negotiations in which, in execution of the trust committed to him, he is now engaged with the leading statesmen of the country. The remarks which follow were in types before we heard of the defeat of the Derby government; and as they relate to a matter of some historical interest, though, happily, not of present importance, we have not thought it worth while to cancel them.

The new Parliament has met, and though much obscurity rests upon it in regard to many questions of the highest interest to the country, its opinions as to the question of Free Trade are finally and completely settled. With great difficulty were the Protectionist Ministry brought to a distinct utterance on this vital subject, and loud were their complaints that they were not to be permitted to keep their intentions regarding it a little longer in the dark; but there was no help for them, and with what grace they could command, they read the recantation put into their hands by a member of the late Free Trade administration. The out-and-out Protectionists mustered only 53 votes against Lord Palmerston's amendment, supported by 468, affirming the policy of Free Trade. The monopoly of producing corn for the use of the millions of Great Britain died in 1846. Since then the corpse has lain unburied; it has now, amidst the deep regrets, and yet by the general active concurrence of its long attached friends, been decently interred, never, we trust, to know a resurrection.

The battle of compensation to the landholders remains to be fought, and so far as it has gone in Parliament before the Christmas recess, it is likely to issue in the still further humiliation of the Protectionist party. With the attempts of ministers to shift burdens from the landed